The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of geranium, botanically known as Pelargonium hortorum Bailey, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Americana Rose Splash. The new cultivar is propagated from a seedling resulting from the cross of a proprietary breeding line known as 2226-6 and the geranium variety known as Rio (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,422). The breeding line 2226-6 is a single flower pink with a dark pink basal petal spot (splash). The variety Rio has a dark leaf, single flower, that is pink and also has a basal petal spot (splash).
Americana Rose Splash is a product of a planned breeding program intended to create new geranium cultivars with rose colored flowers with a splash pattern, single petal flower form, mid-green foliage, vigorous growth and superior cutting productivity.
The new cultivar was created in 1991 in Gilroy, Calif. and has been repeatedly asexually reproduced by cuttings in Gilroy, Calif. and Guatemala over a three year period. It has also been trialed at Okemos, Mich. It has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive propagations; and this novelty appears to be firmly fixed.